: In the first post Mark Simmons said that "blowing halo to pieces would
: stop it from firing, but would it kill the flood?"
: I think it could, wouldn't blowing the Halo into pieces destroy the
: Atrificial atmosphere, making everything still alive suffocate? The
: remaining pieces would becaome vaccums, as habitable as an asteroid. Even
: if the flood didn't breathe air, all it's food would die out and it would
: starve, right?

But what about Halo, it is "built" it could very well have doors much like the POA and other Sci-fi. Doors that shut off parts of the ship that have lost pressure. The peices of Halo could very well be sealed internally preventing all the air from leaving. Granted food might be a problem but the flood and marines inside could very well still be alive, just sealed into the insides of the pieces. So the surface wouldn't sustain live but inside the many very large tunnels and such underground could get sealed off with breathable air.

As for Cortana and dust and echos, those peices are far from dust size, and with her great skill in scanning for marines while on Halo (sarcasm) there could be quite a few left just inside the peices. Which her scans couldn't pick up or she chose to ignore.